York, Pennsylvania. 168 miles.

Hello!

Sorry about the delay in getting this blog up and running. Also, you'll find it a bit disorganised, but in a nice way, as in jumping backwards and forwards and going off at tangents all the time. I hope you enjoy it, and please do add your comments, because I want to make it as interactive as possible.

My name is Phil Goddard, I'm British, and I'm 47. I'm walking from New York to Los Angeles in memory of my much-loved wife Jayne, who died on colon cancer in January 2006. I'm also raising money for the Association for International Cancer Research.

I think I'm going to enjoy the walk, for two reasons: places, and people.

The places are the countless beautiful little towns with clapboard houses and white-painted churches, and the two-lane roads meandering through verdant cornfields. But it hasn't all been like this: I've decided there should be a special symbol on the map for roads lined with strip malls, cheap motels and McDonalds, so people like me can steer clear of them. Apart from asking people, there's often no way of telling in advance whether my route is going to be sylvan idyll or suburban dystopia.

The people: well, my sister and hardworking part-time PR consultant, Jacqui, has been bombarding the local media with press releases as I walk, and the response has been excellent. I've already done seven newspaper interviews, so people keep stopping their cars, winding the window down and chatting and/or thrusting money into my hand. Also, I have a "Coast to Coast" banner on the back of my pack, a surefire conversation starter.

Some of these encounters have been very moving. At lunchtime today, a guy sat down at my table and told me he had colon cancer - he'd had radical surgery, and was expecting to survive. And then this evening, a couple just walked up to me in the street and invited me to dinner. They'd just come from the funeral of his sister, who'd died of lymphoma.

It's been a very humbling experience, and already I've been overwhelmed by the flood of goodwill.